‘Dumbo’ Octopus Sightings Found Under the Sea; What Makes It That Large?

The ocean is known for containing eerie-looking creatures like giant mystery squid and angler fish. But let's not forget the wealth of adorable animals living beneath the sea called 'Dumbo' octopuses.

CNet said Dumbo octopuses are cephalopods that resemble Disney's flying elephant thanks to their ear-like fins.

Casper, The Ghostly (Dumbo) Octopus Found

Reports mentioned that sea divers pointed a deep-diving robot's camera at a white octopus that floated motionless on the ocean floor.

It was 2016, and the ocean off Hawaii was 4,290 meters deep (2.6 miles). Nobody has ever seen an octopus-like that before, let less one that deep. Because of its sinister appearance, it was given the name Casper.

Until that point, Dumbo octopuses-named after another cartoon character-were the only cephalopods found swimming about at such depths. They were spotted swimming as deep as 6,957 meters and had gorgeous, ear-like folds on either side of their skulls.

There were a lot of fascinating topics brought up by Casper's first appearance. Why is it like that?

(Photo: BLOOM ASSOCIATION/AFP via Getty Images)
This handout picture released on September 16, 2013, by the Bloom association shows a Dumbo octopus egg on a deep-sea coral branch. A single passage of a deep-sea trawl up to 2000 meters of depth destroys marine ecosystems in a potentially irreversible way. The European Commission has proposed to ban deep-sea bottom trawling.

ALSO READ: Bizarre 'Ghost Octopus' Baffled Scientists: What Is This Ghostlike Cephalopod?

About Dumbo Octopus

Dumbo octopuses may be found worldwide in habitats thousands of feet below the ocean's surface, far from human sight.

Michael Vecchione, a cephalopod expert at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.'s NOAA National Systematics Laboratory, told Newsweek several definitions of what makes a dumbo octopus. It isn't easy to pinpoint exactly what they are.

While Vecchione and other specialists refer to the larger group of so-called "cirrate" octopods-which includes roughly 45 identified species in total-as Dumbo octopuses, other researchers exclusively use that word to refer to the group of species called Grimpoteuthis.

The main characteristic that sets citrates from other octopuses is that they have fins. These physical characteristics, seen on their heads and resembling Dumbo, the cartoon elephant's ears, gave rise to the moniker.

According to Vecchione, the Dumbo octopuses also have muscular projections called "cirri" that are located between each arm's suckers and resemble fingers. This is where the word "cirrate" came from.

Furthermore, the webbed arms of cirrate octopuses usually reach the points of the arms.

The cephalopods, or mollusks, including squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish, live in the lowest depths. Dumbo octopuses are among them.

These organisms can be found in the deepest sections of the ocean's trenches.

The shallowest ones are up to around 200 meters deep, and they go down to perhaps around 7,000 meters. Consequently, the group as a whole has a pretty wide spectrum.